The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
In order to allow a vehicle to coast downhill or drive a vehicle at a predetermined speed without requiring the driver to press down the accelerator pedal, it may be possible to stop supplying fuel to the engine or directly disengage the clutch of a transmission to improve fuel efficiency.
Such control can temporarily improve fuel efficiency because fuel is not consumed, but the engine may place a load on the vehicle running in this state, so excessive deceleration may occur. Accordingly, a desired speed cannot be reached upon re-acceleration, and the effect of fuel efficiency improvement may be reduced.
A method of improving fuel efficiency that reduces deceleration and increases the coasting distance by disengaging the clutch of a transmission in neutral may be proposed as an alternative to such control.
However, in order to shift to the neutral position when a vehicle coasts, it is required to engage the clutch to accelerate and shift to a desired gear corresponding to the current driving state, so an acceleration delay or torque transmission delay may be caused by the time taken to shift.
The description provided above as a related art of the present disclosure is only for helping understanding the background of the present disclosure and should not be construed as being included in the related art known by those skilled in the art.